Garden Grown Tomato Soup

It’s September, and if you have a garden, you are fortunate enough to enjoy a healthy harvest of fresh vegetables, including my personal favorite, home grown garden tomatoes. My garden was able to grow some spectacular tomatoes this year, in spite of the relentlessly hot, dry weather we experienced all summer.

There is nothing better than home grown tomatoes, as well as the many options for enjoying them. This year I was compelled to try something new with my incredibly sweet, mouth watering, and delicious tomatoes. After all these years, I tried my hand at fresh tomato soup with a recipe I came across in the first cookbook I ever bought right after I moved to Denver after graduating college.

I had no idea if the recipe was any good, or if I was wasting perfectly good tomatoes by trying it, but my curiosity got the best of me. So, throwing caution to the wind, I decided to sacrifice my tomatoes to my culinary experiment. I did make a few minor changes to the original recipe (of course I did), and the results were incredible.

The soup was so good, I made it a second time using organic heirloom tomatoes from the grocery store to see how it would turn out. It was delicious. So, don’t worry if you don’t grow your own tomatoes. You can always get them at the local Farmer’s Market or the grocery store. And now, here it is. The premier of my Garden Grown Tomato Soup!

Ingredients: 

1-2 TBS butter

2 TBS avocado oil

2 thinly sliced medium onions

2 pounds coarsely chopped tomatoes

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil (you get extra credit if you grew your own basil)

2 tsp thyme

1 TBS vegetable bullion

3 cups water

2 Parmigiano Reggiano cheese rinds

Directions: 

In a large soup pan heat butter and oil over medium heat. Once butter melts, add onions and cook until tender, stirring frequently to prevent browning or burning. Stir in tomatoes, basil, thyme, and bullion. Stir in water and bring to a boil.

Add cheese rinds, decrease heat to low, simmer for one hour then remove from heat and let soup cool. Once the soup is cool enough to handle, remove cheese rinds and puree soup in a blender or an immersion blender. Reheat soup and serve with crusty bread or croutons. Enjoy!

Cook’s note: The original recipe calls for peeling the tomatoes before cooking. I wasn’t patient enough to peel 2 pounds of tomatoes, but in my humble opinion, there’s no need to peel them. Plus, you get all of the great health benefits that tomatoes have to offer.